I ran across an interesting Medscape article, “Should Doctors Be Funnier? These MDs Are Real Comedians.” I don’t know if they should be funny, but it probably wouldn’t hurt.
I think a sense of humor is a good thing for anyone to have and it’s probably not that hard to develop. There’s even a Wikihow article on how to develop a sense of humor.
I usually look for the funny edge in most things that happen to me. I was always very nervous about presenting Grand Rounds when I was on staff at the hospital. I would try to come up with a good case example illustrating both medical and psychiatric features. It was pretty challenging.
I often used humor to help me get through my stage fright. I didn’t tell jokes, but I did clown around a bit. One day, I arrived too early for the Psychiatry Dept. Grand Rounds and accidentally walked in on another scheduled event in the conference room that was obviously not for psychiatrists—only not immediately obvious to me. I got a few chuckles from the audience just from having to back out. Later, during the real Grand Rounds I clowned about my mistake as a sort of opener to my presentation.
Unfortunately, I then had to stumble through my PowerPoint slides (every presenter’s worst nightmare) because I evidently had not organized them correctly. I survived by joking about it. That resulted in a digital award from the residents for being “Improviser of the Year.”
Humor can get you through some pretty sticky situations.
Go Retire Psychiatrist 